Illinois Insurance Chief Sees Market Becoming More Concentrated – The KHN Intervew
Michael T. McRaith, who is taking a new job shortly with the Treasury Department, says state or regional health insurers are having trouble remaining viable.
All Coverage
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Opinion Column
GOP Budget: Time Travel Back To When Seniors Couldn’t Afford Health Care — Guest Opinion
A short walk down memory lane — to a retired auto worker’s 1959 congressional testimony — offers a stark reminder that Republican plans to change Medicare could turn back time and leave many seniors unable to pay their medical bills.
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Insurers Clash With Health Providers As States Expand Medicaid Managed Care
Many states are trying to restrain Medicaid spending by putting more people into managed care plans, but with billions of dollars at stake, insurers and health providers are lobbying hard for their interests.
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Medicare Patients Aren’t Taking Advantage Of Some Newly Free Tests
This year, seniors enrolled in Medicare no longer have to pay for more than a dozen tests and services to prevent disease thanks to the health law. Many, however, aren’t lining up for mammograms or colonoscopies though free wellness checks are luring many.
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Some Church Groups Form Sharing Ministries To Cover Members’ Medical Costs
The groups are financed through a monthly fee, and those revenues are divvied up and sent to members when they have health care expenses.
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Under Health Law, Colonoscopies Are Free – But It Doesn’t Always Work That Way
The billing can get complicated if doctors find a polyp during a screening: Some insurers
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Finding A Path Through The Health Insurance Market ‘Gobbledygook’
In her search for a health plan, Lisa Drew discovered that her ZIP code was a black hole for individual coverage.
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A Novel Way To Get Unlimited Primary Care
Michelle Andrews, author of KHN’s “Insuring Your Health” weekly feature, talks with Jackie Judd about clinics that charge a patient a monthly fee
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Opinion Column
There Aren’t Enough Rich People To Pay For Medicare And Medicaid! — Guest Opinion
This country is in such a hole that it is senseless to deny that some new taxes will be needed to pay for all of the nation’s accumulated debts. But folks, we can’t just tax our way out of this mess.
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3 In 4 U.S. Prescriptions Are Now For Generic Drugs
As more brand-name drugs lose patent protection, use of inexpensive generic medicines continues to rise. Later this year cholesterol-fighter Lipitor will become available as a generic in the U.S., a change that will add more fuel to the trend.
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Medical Wonder: Meet the CEO Who Rebuilt a Crumbling California Hospital
Wright Lassiter is doing the seemingly impossible as CEO of the Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland, Calif.: He’s turned a mismanaged urban safety-net hospital system in one of America’s most violent cities into a model for other public hospitals by trimming costs — and did it while expanding services.
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Nursing Home Industry Leader Worries About Cuts To Medicare, Medicaid
Too few resources are available to handle the predicted explosion in the number of elderly, says Mark Parkinson, head of the largest nursing home lobby.
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Opinion Column
ACO Fairy Tale Faces a Rumpelstiltskin Moment — Guest Opinion
When writing the final ACO rules, CMS has the chance to spin the dross of the current regulations into something of genuine value to providers, even if it’s not quite Rumpelstiltskin-quality gold. If the feds fail, it is all of us, not just those on Medicare program, who could live unhappily ever after.
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People Who Donate Organs For Transplants Can Have Difficulty Getting Insurance
Live organ donors – who can offer kidneys or part of their liver, lung or pancreas
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HHS Will ‘Hold Ourselves Accountable’ On Plan To Lessen Health Disparities – The KHN Interview
Dr. Garth N. Graham, HHS deputy assistant secretary for minority health, says comprehensive HHS approach aims to improve workforce diversity and data collection for minority populations.
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House Passes Ryan’s Controversial Budget Plan
Republicans on Friday passes a controversial budget plan championed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, and though it stands nearly no chance in the Senate, it is likely a starting point for negotiations among lawmakers.
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Medical Device Industry Lobbies IRS and Congress To Dodge Health Law Tax
The medical device industry took a hit during legislative deal-making over health care last year, an excise tax that’s expected to yield $20 billion over 10 years, but the industry is using all its Capitol Hill muscle in a drive to kill the tax.
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Opinion Column
Governors’ Letter Shows Why Medicaid Block Grants Are Necessary — Guest Opinon
Seventeen governors sent a letter to congressional leaders in opposition to a plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to convert Medicaid into a block grant program. But their criticisms fall flat.
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Berwick Says Obama’s Plan To Trigger Medicare Cuts Won’t Be Necessary
Current plans to improve quality and reduce waste should avoid the need for the Independent Payment Review Board to step in and order cuts, Medicare chief says.
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Opinion Column
The Ryan Plan: An Attempt To Reduce Health Care Spending, But At A High Cost
The GOP vision for health care reform, as expressed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., is to limit federal health care spending to levels far below what they are today, and then let individuals make the best of it. The federal health law not only offers a more realistic approach to controlling costs, but a more humane one.
